Letters - 8 April 2022
From Value and contribution to Carpet threshing
Value and contribution
While I agree with some of Bryn Jones’ letter of 18 March, I have two points to make in response to it.
Bryn refers to older people as ‘dead people walking’ (which may be meant humorously). I would like to say that, however disabled physically or mentally, old, frail, ill or poor, we are all of value and have a contribution to make. Jesus valued the tiny amount donated by a poor widow to the temple treasury (Mark 12: 41-44). Some people only come to Quakers in old age, and they, and what they have to contribute, are welcomed.
Bryn regrets that we do not have enough young people in the Society of Friends to help in Ukraine after the war ends. I think Quakers have a different contribution to make. The European Ukrainians fill the media, while the non-European people suffering in Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria and other places do not receive the same attention. We need to remind people of those who suffer but are forgotten. In particular, we need to remind them that we sell huge amounts of weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is causing such havoc in Yemen.
Elizabeth Coleman
Quakers and old age
Take heart, Bryn Jones (18 March). The Quakers will not become a ‘footnote in the history of Spirit-led religious movements’.
Listen to Theodore Zeldin’s assessment of Quakerism’s significance: ‘The Society of Friends… has had more influence on how human beings treat each other than any government ever had, of however powerful an empire’ (An Intimate History of Humanity, 1994). And what about the words of the late, great AngliQuaker, Graham Shaw, in his Cost of Authority (1983)? ‘Laymen of all denominations might benefit if the ecumenical movement paid greater attention to the Religious Society of Friends, for it is perhaps the Quakers who represent the most straightforward path out of our difficulties. More than any other denomination they exemplify in their structures a critical and subversive understanding of the gospel.’ Quite an offer.
Young people have rarely ever in the past been interested in joining-in religiously – being cared for by family members is enough, thank you very much – but if we want to appeal to a new generation, then I have a solution: a network of Quaker chaplains across every university campus and place of further education. In return for a very modest stipend – O, how George Fox will be turning in his grave – I should be only too delighted to spend my retiring days engaged in such a hireling ministry.
I would tell the inquisitive and enquiring what Theodore Zeldin tells us, that the Quakers ‘invented the idea of offering humanitarian help to civilians devastated by war: in 1870-1 they brought food, clothing and medicine to both sides in the Franco-Prussian War’. I think a few might sign up.
Jonathan Wooding
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